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Bill McGarry

William Harry McGarry (10 June 1927 – 15 March 2005) was an England international association footballer and manager who spent 40 years in the professional game. He had a reputation for toughness, both as a player and as a manager.

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

A right-half as a player, he joined Port Vale following the end of World War II, and spent the next six years with the club. He then moved on to Huddersfield Town in 1951, where he would spend the next ten years of his career. He was an ever-present as Town won promotion out of the Second Division in 1952–53. He retired in 1963, after spending two years as Bournemouth's player-manager. In all he scored 33 goals in 617 league and cup games in an eighteen-year career in the Football League. After winning one England "B" cap in 1954, he went on to win four senior England caps.

He also found success as a manager, moving from Bournemouth to Watford in 1963, he was appointed as Ipswich Town manager the following year. There he led the club to the Second Division championship in 1967–68, before moving on to the vacant position at Wolverhampton Wanderers later in 1968. He spent eight years with "Wolves", leading them to the UEFA Cup final in 1972 and to League Cup glory in 1974. He became an international manager with Saudi Arabia in 1976, only to return to the domestic game with Newcastle United the following year. He failed to find success at Newcastle, and left the club in 1980, before finding work in Zambia with Power Dynamos FC. He spent two months as Wolves manager in 1985, before leaving his management career behind him. After a long battle against illness, he died on 15 March 2005, aged 77.[3] He had one son and one daughter.[4]

"Terriers" manager George Stephenson bought McGarry to play in a defensive partnership with Laurie Kelly. He built a reputation as a tough-tackling, sturdy wing-half,[4] and featured ten times towards the end of the 1950–51 season. He then scored twice in 43 games in 1951–52, as Huddersfield suffered relegation. New boss Andy Beattie led the club to immediate promotion out of the Second Division with a second-place finish in 1952–53. McGarry played all 44 games, in an extremely settled defence that featured himself, Kelly, Don McEvoy, Len Quested, Ron Staniforth, and goalkeeper Jack Wheeler; remarkable, the six men played every minute of the campaign, and boasted the best defensive record in the Football League with just 33 goals conceded in 42 league games. Town's solid defence then helped them to finish third in the top-flight in 1953–54, just six points behind champions Wolverhampton Wanderers; McGarry was again an ever-present, scoring four goals in 43 appearances. He then scored once in 38 games in 1954–55, as Town posted a 12th-place finish. He then scored four goals in 41 games in 1955–56, as their once solid defence leaked goals and cost them relegation as they finished below 20th place Aston Villa on goal average. Bill Shankly took charge at Leeds Road in November 1956, and took the club to 12th in the Second Division in 1956–57; he kept faith with McGarry, who scored twice in 36 appearances. He scored six goals in 36 games in 1957–58, as Huddersfield rose slightly to ninth place. His goal tally included a successfully converted penalty in the 7–6 defeat to Charlton Athletic at The Valley on 21 December; ten-man Charlton came back from 5–1 down in what The Guardian described as "the most remarkable comeback in football history".[5] They then dropped down to 14th in 1958–59, with McGarry scoring four goals in 32 games. He scored once in 38 games in 1959–60; Town posted a sixth-place finish under new boss Eddie Boot, who took charge after Shankly left the club to manage Liverpool. McGarry scored once in 20 appearances in 1960–61, as Town dropped down to 20th place.

After a decade of service at Huddersfield Town, he headed south to become Bournemouth's first player-manager.[6] He spent two years at Dean Court, scoring twice in 78 league games, before hanging up his boots and devoting himself to management.

Former teammate Roy Sproson said that: "he was everything that a manager could want in a player. Magnificently fit, Bill was aggressive, busy, good in the air and a player of tremendous enthusiasm for the game. He gave 100 per cent effort for all of 90 minutes" and that he also used to "underrate himself".[9]Freddie Steele stated that "McGarry is a tough bugger. He wasn't born, you know – he was cast at Shelton Bar!".[10]

They again qualified for Europe following a fifth-place finish in 1972–73, and McGarry also led the club to the semi-finals of both the FA Cup and League Cup. They were beaten 1–0 by Leeds United at Maine Road in the FA Cup, and lost 4–3 on aggregate to Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup. They dropped to 12th place in 1973–74, but finally won a major trophy after beating Manchester City 2–1 in the League Cup final at Wembley. He later admitted that he would have resigned had Wolves lost in the final.[12] Wolves dropped back down to 12th in 1974–75, though they did record a 7–1 win over Chelsea at Molineux. However the club suffered relegation at the end of the 1975–76 season, and McGarry was promptly fired after nearly eight years at the helm.[13] He was replaced by long-time assistant Sammy Chung.

"The older players like Mike Bailey, Derek Dougan and Waggy [Dave Wagstaffe] were leaving and he tried to replace them like for like, but you couldn’t do it. He tried to make Steve Kindon into a centre-forward but he wasn’t a Dougan type of centre-forward. He brought in John Farley to be a Waggy and he wasn’t that, and he never replaced Mike. If there was ever a criticism of McGarry, it was that he could not adapt his tactics to different players."

— Striker John Richards explains his theory as to McGarry's decline at Wolves.[14]

McGarry then served in a variety of posts, with spells as a scout at Brighton & Hove Albion, ZambianPower Dynamos FC as a coach, the Zambian national team as manager, and a period as a coach in South Africa. He returned to former club Wolves in September 1985, but walked out after just 61 days after a fall-out with the Bhatti Brothers.[16] After a spell outside the game, he returned to South Africa and coached in Bophuthatswana.[6]

Journalist Pat Murphy described McGarry as a "fearsome character when crossed" who was a "hard taskmaster".[11] Murphy and Alan Oliver both noted that McGarry could often give journalists a hard time.[11][17] Former Wolves player Kenny Hibbitt said that "I didn’t necessarily like him, but I respected him."[14] He also instigated rules on players diet, long before the trend became standard practice within the footballing world.[18]